UCBH Fills Community Position

UCBH Holdings Inc. in San Francisco has hired Doreen Woo Ho, a Wells Fargo & Co. executive, to fill the newly created position of president of community banking.

The $13 billion-asset UCBH said Monday that Ms. Woo Ho would direct the company's strategic community banking initiatives in all its domestic markets.

In addition to California, where it has 51 branches, UCBH's United Commercial Bank has branches in Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington.

UCBH caters primarily to Chinese-Americans and U.S. companies that do business in China. Thomas S. Wu, its chairman, president, and chief executive officer, said in a press release Monday that his company's goal is to "become a leader in each of our target markets." Ms. Woo Ho will "provide the strong leadership that is vital to achieving our objectives to expand customer relationships, increase customer profitability, and increase market share."

A former Vietnam correspondent for Time magazine, Ms. Woo Ho spent 25 years at Citibank before joining Wells in 1998 to head its consumer credit group. From 1998 to 2007 she oversaw the company's rapid growth in consumer lending, particularly in home equity loans.

More recently, she was the head of Wells' enterprise marketing group, where she oversaw global branding, advertising, and marketing programs.